by Owen Cole
This means the alteration of the structure of human cells. It can be a means of preventing parents passing on hereditary illnesses to their children. Many Sikhs would still feel that this was a way of tampering with the natural body which God has given. However, some doctors might argue that this was God-given knowledge that should be used to help those who suffer from these disorders. Certainly, they would approve of parents using contraceptives if they did not want to run the risk of bringing such children into the world. Once born, such a baby should be cared for with as much love as any other. He or she is a gift from God.
Sikhs would not agree to experiments being carried out on aborted foetuses as human life is believed to begin at conception.
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
The insemination of a wife with the sperm of someone other than her husband is morally wrong according to Sikh teachings. There is a stigma attached to it, which is akin to adultery. Even if the husband were to give consent originally and the donor were to remain anonymous, the possibility of the husband feeling inadequate and jealous would be such that the marriage could be put at risk. Adoption by kin is often is the acceptable solution, or being willing to live with the childless state, acknowledging it to be God’s will. For the same kinds of reasons, surrogacy is not acceptable.
In vitro fertilization, or ‘test tube babies’, would not be objected to by Sikhs. They would, however, look for adequate safeguards to make sure that only the sperms and ovum of a married couple are used.
Most medical ethical problems are the consequence of recent developments in the West. When to switch off a life-support machine may be an issue in Delhi, Bombay and some other large cities, but often the technology to prolong life artificially is not available. This renders many issues theoretical and academic. Sikh doctors working in the West, however, are likely to be confronted increasingly by issues on which the Guru Granth Sahib provides no direct guidance. There is no evidence that their associations are as yet addressing these matters.
The rather categorical statements expressed in this section are likely to represent the views of many Sikhs for some time into the future, but doubtless some individuals and families will form their own opinions in Western societies.
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THINGS TO REMEMBER
Particular ethical concerns vary and change because of circumstances, which may include living in different cultures and times, but principles remain unaltered.
Seva, community service, is the most important Sikh ethical concept.
Seva should not be confined to one’s own family or community but extended to the whole of humanity.
Theory and practice may not coincide. A Sikh girl may find her life restricted more than her brother’s even though Sikh teaching is one of gender equality.
Guru Gobind Singh propounded the theory of the just war, one to be fought only in the defence of justice.
Some Sikhs may be pacifists but as India has never had a conscript army the issue has not arisen in practice.
Medical ethics is an area that may be subject to change in particular circumstances. Clarity is not always guaranteed.
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11
The Sikh scriptures
In this chapter you will learn:
about the composition of the scriptures
about their importance
about the use of the Guru Granth Sahib in worship.
There can be no people for whom their sacred writings play a more important part in their worship and beliefs than for Sikhs. At the level of individual practice, from the naming of a child until the ceremonies in which the bereaved are comforted, the scriptures are physically present to witness and authenticate them. At the community level, no Sikh activity can take place other than in the presence of the scriptures.
The Guru Granth Sahib
The Sikh scripture is the Guru Granth Sahib. This is a compilation of spiritual poetic material composed by six of the Gurus, as well as a large body of similar material uttered by non-Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and some who perhaps refused to be allocated to either community. There are also some verses that were first sung by bards at the court of Guru Arjan. It contains very little historical, and only a small amount of biographical, material.
The story of the Guru Granth Sahib is one of a development which took place over a period of just over 200 years. It began with Guru Nanak who conveyed his message to villagers and others to whom he preached by means of poetry. He was not the first person in India to employ this method, or the last in the history of religions. He was one of those who recognized the value of assisting the memory by putting teaching into hymns, for which his Muslim friend, Mardana, provided easily sung tunes. Guru Nanak composed 947 hymns, which are included in the Guru Granth Sahib. The Janamsakhis contain several others which for one reason or another have not found their way into the scriptural collection. An example is a verse associated with his visit to Makkah in the B40 Janamsakhi account (p. 53). They also indicate that many hymns were composed in response to particular situations. For example, the B40 also describes an incident in which the headman and qazi, a religious official, of Guru Nanak’s village questioned him about his teachings. He ends the conversation by uttering the words already quoted in which the characteristics of a true Muslim are outlined (B40, p. 24). Other notable hymns that may be responses to particular occasions are Siddha Gosht, a discourse with a group of yogis, and Arti, which resulted from a visit to the temple of Jagganath at Puri.
At some time the decision was taken to write down the hymns of Guru Nanak. Sikh tradition is an uncertain guide in determining who was responsible. Lehna, a disciple who later became the second Guru and is better known as Guru Angad, is often credited with the achievement. It is said that he compiled the 35-letter Gurmukhi alphabet in which the scripture, and Punjabi, generally are written. Against this is the fact that Guru Nanak composed a hymn, in the form of an acrostic, making use of the 35-letter alphabet. The truth is probably that Guru Angad gave the alphabet its final form based on refinements already undertaken by his predecessor.
Of more significance than authorship is the fact that the alphabet was invented to write down the hymns of Guru Nanak. The script is called Gurmukhi. The word gurmukhi literally means ‘from the mouth of the Guru’.
Bhai Gurdas, who might be described as the first Sikh historian, writing in the days of the fifth or sixth Guru, described Guru Nanak’s visit to Makkah. He said that ‘he carried a staff in his hand, a book under his arm, a water pot, and a carpet for the call to prayer’ (first Var, v. 32). It is likely that the book contained at least some of his hymns.
The sheer bulk of Guru Nanak’s output might be sufficient reason for the decision to commit his hymns to writing, but there might be a second reason. When Guru Nanak appointed Lehna to be his successor, he passed over his two sons, Shri Chand and Lakshmi Das. Shri Chand was set up as a rival to Guru Angad, and later still to Guru Amar Das, by Sikhs who felt he should have succeeded to his father’s gaddi. A method of winning support was to create spurious verses which would advance his claims. The natural way to counter this would be to gather the authentic hymns into a collection that had the approval of Sikhs of long and respected standing in the community.
Although the Sikh community was focused upon Guru Nanak’s village of Kartarpur during his final years, there is evidence that Sikhs were to be found in other parts of Punjab. Guru Angad, himself, came from Khadur, a town some 50 miles from Kartarpur. The Janam Sakhis mention the establishment of gurdwaras (then called dharamsalas) even beyond the borders of India. These young communities would need copies of the Guru’s hymns to use when he was not personally present with them.
We may see Guru Angad as the person who safeguarded his master’s collection as a key way of consolidating the Panth. He added only 62 of his own hymns.
The compilation of the Adi Granth
The most important development in the story of the Sikh scriptures was Guru Arjan’s decision to assemble in one volume a
n authoritative collection of authentic bani and install it in the newly completed Darbar Sahib in Amritsar. Guru Amar Das had made a beginning by encouraging his grandson, Sahans Ram (sometimes called Sansar Ram), to gather the available material. His motives for doing so had been very much the same as those of Guru Angad. The threat from disgruntled sectarian groups was increasing, as can be seen from the warning contained in such passages as this by Guru Amar Das:
All other teaching but that of the Sat Guru is false. False are those who utter it, false those who hear it, false those who recite and invent it. They utter the Name with their tongue but do not understand what they say. (AG 920)
There was an additional reason. Bhai Phaira, who had compiled the hymns of Guru Nanak for Guru Angad, and Bhai Budha, who had applied the ceremonial tilak mark to Guru Angad’s forehead at his installation, were growing old and most of the first Sikhs had already died. Guru Amar Das himself was converted in the time of the second Guru, not the first. There was a danger that Sikhs who could witness to the authenticity of the bani would soon have passed away. Guru Amar Das, therefore, wisely revised the existing collection, adding his own 907 hymns.
Guru Ram Das composed 679 hymns but no one can approach the output of his son, Guru Arjan, the fifth Guru, who was responsible for 2,218. His greatest claim to importance, however, does not relate to his poetic genius and skill, but to his decision to publish the Sikh sacred writings in one definitive volume. Guru Amar Das’s revision had taken the form of at least a two-volume collection. Probably there was a third volume, and maybe even a fourth, which no longer exist. These volumes (in Punjabi, pothis) were in the possession of Baba Mohan, the elder son of Guru Amar Das, and father of Sahans Ram who had compiled them. Guru Arjan borrowed these and also a pothi that was in the possession of Datu, a surviving son of Guru Angad. Besides using the available written sources he also had the help of the elderly Bhai Budha, survivor of the Kartarpur community, and the help of his kinsman Bhai Gurdas, an able theologian and historian. These were entrusted with the task of determining which versions of particular hymns were to be regarded as authentic, under the careful supervision of the Guru himself. The resulting collection, known as the Adi Granth, survives in the possession of descendants of Guru Arjan at a town called Kartarpur on the river Beas, not to be confused with the village founded by Guru Nanak. Marginal comments and corrections in Guru Arjan’s handwriting bear witness to the carefulness of his scrutiny.
The structure of the Adi Granth
There is no need to go into great detail but a few points must be made.
First, Guru Arjan imposed his own structure on the volume and this differed from previous ones. Using the page numbers of modern printed versions, we can say that the first 13 pages, containing the hymns that Sikhs use every day in their private devotions, were not placed within the arrangement that is given to the rest of the book. Pages 14 to 1352 are divided into 31 sections, each named after the musical setting or rag to which they should be sung. The last 78 pages contain passages that are often so short, sometimes only two lines, that they could not satisfactorily be placed within the main body of the text.
The Adi Granth becomes the Guru Granth Sahib
The sixth, seventh and eighth Gurus were not inspired to compose hymns but the ninth Guru, Tegh Bahadur, and his son, Guru Gobind Singh, were. In 1706 Guru Gobind Singh decided to add the bani of his father to the Adi Granth but not to include any of his own compositions. These 116 passages he placed in the rags where he thought they fitted most appropriately. Before he died in 1708, Guru Gobind Singh declared that there would be no further human Gurus. Sikhs wishing to come into the Guru’s presence should come to, and listen to, the words of the scripture which would now be their Guru, the Guru Granth. Sahib is usually added as a mark of respect.
The bhagat bani
A distinctive feature of the Guru Granth Sahib is the fact that 938 shabads (hymns) out of 5,894 were composed by non-Sikhs – including brahmins, Ramanand and Jaidev, and low-caste men such as Ravidas, a cobbler, Sena, a barber, and Sadhna, a butcher. There was also the Muslim, Sheikh Farid, and at least one person, who would not wish to be included in any sectarian grouping, Kabir.
It was Guru Nanak who began to collect the compositions of the non-Sikh sants as they are often called. There is one important piece of evidence to support this assertion, and there may be others. It is a verse from Sheikh Farid that occurs in the Guru Granth Sahib and which is cited elsewhere by Guru Nanak himself. Farid’s verse reads:
You could not make a raft at the time you should have made it. When the sea is full and overflowing it is hard to cross. Do not touch the saffron flower with your hand. Its colour will fade, my dear. First the bride herself is weak and in addition, her husband’s command is hard to bear. As the milk does not return to her breast so the soul does not enter the same body again. Says Farid, O my friends, when the spouse calls, the soul departs crestfallen and this body becomes a heap of ashes. (AG 794)
Guru Nanak’s rejoinder is:
Make meditation and self-control the raft by which you cross the flowing stream. Your path shall be as comfortable as if there were no ocean or overflowing stream. Your name alone is the unfading madder with which my cloak is dyed. My beloved, this colour is everlasting. The dear friends have departed, how shall they meet you? If they are united in virtue they will, and once united mortals never suffer separation again. The True One puts an end to coming and going. (AG 729)
It is impossible to doubt that Guru Nanak was aware of Farid’s verse. The fact that they are not adjacent to one another in the Guru Granth Sahib is to be explained by the fact that Guru Arjan had his own reasons for placing passages where he did when he compiled the collection. His reason for separating the verses is unknown.
Whether or not Guru Nanak collected the whole of the bhagat bani cannot yet be decided. Much of the bhagat bani is in one of the Mohan Pothis, but not all, so it was clearly not Guru Arjan’s decision to collect it.
Sometimes the suggestion is made that Guru Amar Das may have collected some of it. All that can be said with certainty is that the idea came from Guru Nanak. The reason for including the bhagat bani in a Sikh anthology may well have been to give practical affirmation to the basic Sikh belief that God’s word is not confined to any particular religion or spiritual movement. It could also have had the effect of creating sympathy towards the Sikh movement, eventually perhaps leading to membership, from people who venerated the teachings of Sheikh Farid, Kabir and the other teachers. The fact that no material from brahminical Hindu scriptures or the Qur’an is included is easily explained. Either it could result in the charge that the Gurus were merely plagiarists or to the assertion that they did accept the authority of these scriptures. What they certainly were is eclectic in their view of scripture, refusing to claim that God spoke only through the revelation that was given to them.
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Insight
Although historical developments have led to the rule that only expositions of the Sikh scriptures may be given in gurdwaras, references to the sacred books of other religions may be made so long as it is with respect.
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The Dasam Granth
Guru Gobind Singh did not include any of his many spiritual poetic compositions in the Guru Granth Sahib. These were collected by one of his companions, Bhai Mani Singh, in 1734. The title given to this anthology, which includes some writings by poets who served at the Guru’s court, is Dasam Granth. It means ‘collection of the Tenth Guru’. In modern printed versions, it is 1,428 pages long. There was no attempt, of course, to emulate the length of the Adi Granth, which before printing varied considerably in length depending on the copyist’s handwriting. Even when printing was introduced, versions varied in their extent until the 1,430-page edition won official approval.
The Dasam Granth may be read in gurdwaras and some of its hymns are used in the initiation ceremony and on other occasions, but its authority is not equal to that of the
Guru Granth Sahib for several reasons. It was the Guru Granth Sahib that Guru Gobind installed as Guru and that provides Sikhs with reason enough. However, the Dasam Granth is also written in a number of languages to which many Sikhs have no access. Guru Gobind Singh was a scholar as well as a poet and seems to have been at home in the Persian of the Mughal court, the Sanskrit of brahminical Hinduism, Punjabi and other North Indian languages. The language of the Guru Granth Sahib may be difficult for young Sikhs living outside Punjab; the Dasam Granth presents problems for all but scholarly Sikhs worldwide.
The writings of Bhai Gurdas and Bhai Nandlal
Bhai Gurdas (1551–1637) was a nephew of Guru Amar Das. He was a famous missionary in the Agra area and a compiler of the Adi Granth. After Guru Arjan’s martyrdom in 1606 and when Guru Hargobind was a prisoner in Gwalior fort, Bhai Gurdas and Bhai Buddha were responsible for holding together the Panth. He was also a theologian, historian and poet. He composed a large number of vars, or epic poems, hymns of praise to God’s achievements through the Sikh Panth. These compositions may also be read in gurdwaras, along with those of Bhai Nandlal (1633–1713), a companion of the last Guru.
The importance of the Guru Granth Sahib
There are two ways of looking at the tremendous importance that the scriptures have for Sikhs. The first is to take note of the teachings that relate to it, the second is to consider its use by individual believers and the Sikh community. I shall begin by examining the ideas that relate to the Guru Granth Sahib.